NoNoNanette

This is an essay I wrote for my English class last semester. Apparently my professor is a super hippy:

From a young age, American youth is spoon fed a message of “just say no.” Anti-drug programs are actives in schools all over the nation; commercials displaying their message invade television air waves. What all these measures instituted by the government’s “war on drugs” fail to tell the general public is why. Lectures on the dangers of smoking and drinking can drag on for hours, but instructors from anti-drug programs seem to always avoid mentioning such dangers about marijuana; instead, they would rather appeal to the youth’s sense of emotion: “Just tell grandma you were out getting stoned.” Anti-drug programs rely on deceptive propaganda to spread their ideals. How can anyone, especially such young people, be expected to make a decision for themselves without all the information? It is because marijuana, or cannabis, is such a taboo subject that the general public is afraid to pursue it. What these “nay-sayers” will never discuss in the school programs is all the potential for good cannabis contains. Granted there are some risks involved in using marijuana (some dependent on the method of intake), however, the benefits are, at this point in time, possibly endless, according to some studies.
The use of marijuana for recreational as well as medicinal purposes is not new. The Cannabis sativa plant is mainly used for the drug it produces as well as the fiber hemp. Hemp is used today to create rope, canvas, and linen. The use of cannabis for its psychoactive effects dates all the way back to ancient Chinese times when Emperor Shen Nung used it help with various aliments. Up until 1937, marijuana was a drug that could be commonly found at most pharmacies, and was held in good standing (Hyde 19).
Supporters of the prohibition of marijuana believe a few common myths about the substance: it causes all kinds of health problems, especially in the brain, it is a “gateway drug” to other drugs, and that it is wildly addictive. Many believe that if legalized, marijuana use will spread and cause the “demoralization of society.” After it was made illegal, stories of marijuana “addicts” being responsible for various crimes spread creating a fear of the drug. Many of these stories can be accredited to Narcotics Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger. He personally denounced marijuana as an “Assault of Youth” and “as dangerous as a coiled rattlesnake.” He even spread the rumors that a young marijuana addict had been responsible for a murder that had taken place at that time. Anslinger went on to portray users “prowling the streets with butcher knives in hand.” Women who smoked were held in even lower regards: “Women who smoked marijuana were portrayed as so addicted that they left home to become prostitutes for their suppliers” (Hyde 62).
Cannabis has never been proven to cause brain damage. The reasoning behind this initial claim was made after postmortem inspections of two monkeys as is explained by
Associate Professor of Sociology of Queens College Lynn Zimmer, and Professor of Pharmacology of City University of New York Medical School John P. Morgan:
The original basis of this claim was a report that, upon postmortem examinations, structural changes in several brain regions were found in two rhesus monkeys exposed to THC. Because these changes primarily involved the hippocampus, a cortical brain region known to play an important role in learning and memory, this finding suggested possible negative consequences for human marijuana users.

What wasn’t stated to the general public at the time of this discovery was that to achieve these same results in humans, there would have to be a massive dose of THC- over 200 times the normal psychoactive dose. Even in studies with only 100 times the normal dose, there was no damage revealed. Further tests were done to the same species of monkey and no group of scientists could produce the same results, and thus the initial report was disproven. There have been recent studies conducted in Canada, China, and Maryland that even suggest that cannabis creates “anti-depressant-like” effects in test rats. Where most illegal drugs known to this date would create a decline in the adult hippocampal neurogenesis, marijuana and other cannibinoids did not (Wen 1).
On top of all the deceptive “facts” that America’s youth is taught in schools by the anti-drug programs, they are taught general paths of logic. This is why the idea that marijuana leads to other drugs (some much worse for the human body than cannabis ever could be) makes so much sense to them. However, studies done by the U.S Department of Health and Human Studies, as presented by Professors Zimmer and Morgan, show that while most users of Heroin, LSD, and Cocaine have used marijuana, most marijuana users have not taken any of the aforementioned drugs. The relationships are as follows:
Proportion of Marijuana Users Ever Trying Cocaine

High School Seniors, 1975-1994
1975: 19% 1980: 27% 1985: 31% 1990: 22%
1976: 19% 1981: 28% 1986: 33% 1991: 22%
1977: 20% 1982: 27% 1987: 30% 1992: 18%
1978: 22% 1983: 28% 1988: 26% 1993: 17%
1979: 25% 1984: 29% 1989: 23% 1994: 16%

There is no proven relationship between the use of marijuana and the use of other drugs. In fact, during the 60s and 70s, the use of Heroin declined while the use of cannabis rose, the use of LSD hardly changed at all, and during the early 80s, the use of Cocaine rose while marijuana declined (marijuana has risen again in recent years).
Lastly, on the claim that marijuana is addictive, anything can be thus depending on the user. Chocolate is a drug, and yet those who spend a dollar a day on a Hershey’s bar are not condemned as addicts. Caffeine is one of most wildly used drug in America and is even predicted to rise in the future (Hyde 82). It would take massive doses of the drug to produce any real withdraw symptoms according to the Open Society Institute:
When human subjects were administered daily oral doses of 180-210 mg of THC - the equivalent of 15-20 joints per day - abrupt cessation produced adverse symptoms, including disturbed sleep, restlessness, nausea, decreased appetite, and sweating. The authors interpreted these symptoms as evidence of physical dependence. However, they noted the syndrome's relatively mild nature and remained skeptical of its occurrence when marijuana is consumed in usual doses and situations. Indeed, when humans are allowed to control consumption, even high doses are not followed by adverse withdrawal symptoms.

Regular use of marijuana (not the kinds administered during these studies) will not produce the symptoms related above. It can only be concluded, then, that this was yet
another deception created by supporters of prohibition of cannabis to scare potential users.
For decades, humans have searched for cures to the various diseases that have managed to wipe out millions. It’s funny to think that the answer may have been growing in our backyard the entire time. Recent studies by A.B. Lynn and M. Herkenham, as presented by the Open Society Institute, have shown that cannabis not only does not negatively affect the human immune system, but that it may stimulate it. Thousands of AIDs victims already use it to relieve some of the sickness brought on by their illness; it helps battle their nausea and increase their appetite. Some have even found it to be more effective than what modern legalized medicines have to offer.
One marijuana user in Boston is quoted by the Associated Press as saying: “I do think we need to make the distinction that when we talk about stopping the arrest of marijuana smokers, we’re talking about adults smoking marijuana in the privacy of their own home. We’re not advocating that it should be legal to smoke in the park, and we certainly don’t think marijuana is for kids” (Associated Press). Ignorance has led America to where it is today on the subject of marijuana, and the only way to remedy the problem is to educate ourselves and our children. Anti-Drug programs in place in America today preach a message of abstinence from drugs of any kind, even if they are still in question. No drug on the market is completely without side effects, but it’s when we weigh their benefits against these side effects that their value can truly be assessed; which is why we need to “just say no” propaganda.


Works Cited

Associated Press. “Marijuana Rally.” Boston, MA. Archives. September 17, 2000. April 18, 2006. <http://www.cnn.archives.com/2000/US/09/17/marijuanarally.ap>

Mind Drugs. 6th ed. Ed. Margret O. Hyde, Duke D. Fisher, M.D., Elizabeth Forsyth, M.D. and Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D. The Millbrook Press. Brookfield, Conn. 1998. Net Library. April 18, 2006. <http://netlibrary.com/nlreader/nlreader.dll?bookid=49745&filename=Page_3.html/>

Open Society Institution/The Lindesmith Center. “Exposing Marijuana Myths: A Review of the Scientific Evidence.” Ed. Lynn Zimmer and John Morgan. October 1995. April 18, 2006. <http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/general/mymther/exposing_index_1095.html/>

Wen Jiang, et al. “Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis and produce anxiolytic-and anti-depressant-like effects.” Journal of Clinical Investigation. 115.11. (2005) : 3104 Academic Search Premier. 17 April, 2006. <http://search.epnet.com/>

Yates, Dennis M. “Legal is the U.S.” Schaffer Library of Drug Policy. April 18, 2006. <http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/mjlegl.html/>

__________________
~You are the hippest of cats~
I have an opinion and a vagina. This seems to offend people a lot for some reason?